Tag Archives: FCRA

Spokeo In Violation of Federal Privacy Laws According to New CDT Complaint Filed With FTC

This week, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) submitted a complaint (.pdf) to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that the data broker website Spokeo was violating federal financial privacy law by not taking adequate safeguards to protect consumers.  Spokeo is a website that bills itself as a search engine that allows users the ability to look up “people-related information from phone books,… More

The FTC Strikes Back: (Essentially) Everyone Should Be Complying With Red Flags Rules, Especially The Healthcare Industry

In a recent letter (.pdf) to the healthcare industry, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has issued its clearest pronouncement yet on which entities must comply with federal “Red Flag Rules” — the identity theft regulations that will go into effect for many businesses on May 1, 2009 (and have been in effect for banks and financial institutions since November 1, 2008). This latest guidance strongly suggests that if you are wondering whether the new federal regulations apply to you — then they probably do. In this post, we will recap the FTC’s recent guidance on who should be complying with the Rules.

FTC Says “Dumpster Wrong Place for Consumers’ Personal Information”

By Stacy Anderson and Gabriel M. Helmer.

Anyone required to comply with the FTC’s Disposal Rule [the text of the rule can be found here], which requires companies to take reasonable steps to dispose of information contained in consumer credit reports, should take note of a recent FTC enforcement action in federal court from the District of Nevada. On December 30, 2008, the FTC filed a complaint against Las Vegas businessman Gregory Navone alleging that he violated the Disposal Rule and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when he discarded forty boxes of documents into a public dumpster behind an office building in Las Vegas. … More

Do The Red Flags Regulations Apply to Me? — Understanding Whether You Are A “Creditor” Under Federal Law

If you are confused about whether you, your company or your clients are subject to federal identity theft regulations, you are not alone. When the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on October 22, 2008 that they were delaying enforcement of the new Red Flags regulations by six months, until May 1, 2009 (which we reported here and here), the FTC admitted that the primary reason for the delay was that many businesses,… More